Saint-Pierre-de-Chaillot church, a curious monument between Byzantine art and concrete in the 16th arrondissement

A stone's throw from the Avenue des Champs-Elysées, a veritable architectural curiosity lurks on the rue de Chaillot in the 16th arrondissement, behind a huge fresco on the façade. In the 11th century, a small Saint-Pierre-de-Chaillot parish sat enthroned with its brick chapel, since demolished to build the new one between 1931 and 1938.

All that remains of this ancient edifice is a statue of the Virgin Mary, that of Chaillot. Created by thearchitect Émile Bois, chief architect of the city of Paris, and financed entirely by donations from the faithful, it was listed as a Monument Historique in 2016.

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Its immense façade sets the tone, with a three-arched entrance porch topped by a huge tympanum magnificently sculpted by Henri Bouchard, depicting the life of Saint Peter, and surmounted by a row of three small windows that give it a medieval feel. But it's when you push open its red doors that you discover this strangeness, impossible to find in any other church in the capital.

Typical of its era, the Romanesque-Byzantine church was built in concrete, with a very geometric and raw, almost austere feel. But this is mixed with exceptionalByzantine art, represented by frescoes in brown and gold cameos around the spiritual life of the church, all the way up the walls, by Moselle painter Nicolas Untersteller and by Pierre Ducos de La Haille on the ceiling.

A central dome, larger than that of the Sacré-Coeur, is flanked by four smaller, octagonal domes, creating a massive, very sombre whole, lit by a few stained-glass windows by the Mauméjean brothers, whose subdued light invites contemplation. A monumental 65-meter-high bell tower towers over the building on the Avenue Marceau side.

The funerals of Guy de Maupassant and Marcel Proust, two major writers of French literature, took place in the 16th arrondissement church. The church is accessible free of charge every day from 7.39 a.m. to 7 p.m., with line 9 to Alma-Marceau or line 1 to George V.